DEVELOPMENT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 209 



ing Streets and repairing pavements and highways. In view of 

 the popular error that Congress is doing a generous thing by 

 the District in sharing expenses with it, these two sections 

 should be read in full. They are as follows : 



That the commissioner of public buildings, or other officer 

 having charge and authority over the lands and property of the 

 United States lying within the city of Washington, shall from 

 time to time cause to be opened and improved such avenues and 

 streets, or parts or portions thereof, as the President of the 

 United States, upon application of the corporation of the said 

 city, shall deem necessary for the public convenience, and di- 

 rect to be done ; and he shall defray the expenses thereof out of 

 any money arising, or which shall have arisen, from the sale of 

 lots in the city of Washington, belonging, or which may have 

 belonged to the United States, and from no other fund. And it 

 shall be the duty of the said commissioner, or other United 

 States officer, as aforesaid, upon the application of the mayor, 

 to repair and keep in repair the pavements, water-gutters, water- 

 ways and flag foot-ways which have been made or shall be 

 made opposite or along the public squares, reservations, or other 

 property belonging to the United States ; as also, on like ap- 

 plication, to repair and keep in repair such streets and avenues, 

 or parts thereof, as may have been, or shall hereafter be, 

 opened and improved by the United States ; the expense of all 

 such repairs to be paid out of the fund before mentioned. 



That the commissioner of public buildings be, and he is hereby 

 required to perform the duties required of the city commissioner 

 by the fourteenth section of the act of the twenty-sixth of May, 

 eighteen hundred and twenty-four, supplementary to the act of 

 the fifteenth of May, eighteen hundred and twenty, incorporat- 

 ing the inhabitants of the city of Washington. And it shall be 

 the duty of the commissioner of public buildings, within ninety 

 days after the sale of any lots or squares belonging to the United 

 States in the city of Washington, to report the fact to the cor- 

 poration of Washington, giving the date of sale, the number of 

 the lot and square, the name of the purchaser or purchasers, and 

 the said lots or squares shall be liable to taxation by the said 

 corporation from the date of such sale. And no open space, 

 public reservation, or other public ground in the said city, shall 

 be occupied by any private person, or for any private purposes 

 whatever. 



With a few alterations, all appertaining to detail and none af- 

 fecting the general scheme of the government, the charter of the 



